Politics

Daniel Hernandez Jr. says that as a young gay Latino, he’ll never be part of the political establishment.Don’t be so sure.Hernandez, 28, is gearing up to run for re-election to the Arizona House from Legislative District 2, which stretches from Tucson’s south side, across Green Valley, down to the border at Nogales. This time he’ll have running mates, of sorts.On Thursday night, Hernandez and his two younger sisters, Consuelo and Alma, held a joint campaign kickoff event at the Salon Mexico in central Tucson. All three siblings are Democrats running for office this year — Alma for the state House in Legislative District 3 and Consuelo for Sunnyside school board. If they win, we could see a shift in the local political power structure.You see, though Daniel ...

In the midst of near-permanent scandal, both Democrats and Republicans are criticized for failing to fix a beleaguered country. But America’s core problems can never be repaired in politics. By itself, no American government — no president, no Congress, no promised barrage of "transformative" legislation, no purported investigations — can halt the stark withering of heart, body, mind and spirit that now imperils these United States.To be sure, it is reasonable to expect certain increments of progress from particular laws and institutions, but still nothing that could really drown out the audible lamentations of our lonely American "crowd."Driven almost exclusively by narrow considerations of taxation, commerce and consumption, our corrupted system of gov...

Economic diplomacy should be embraced regardless of political problems, the head of Russia's investment fund told CNBC on Saturday, discussing the current economic sanctions on the country by the U.S. and European Union.Speaking from the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), lamented the current political impasse between Russia and the U.S. and called on the latter to "separate business from politics.""I think we've got to think about the way to move things forward. For example, the European Union was founded on the principle that economic ties prevent wars and conflict," Dmitriev said. "And I think U.S.-Russia economic ties have to improve, and that dialogue is very important. Because we cannot get stuc...

Illinois' most powerful politician is on the defensive after firing one of his top political advisors over complaints the aide sexually harassed a young woman for months.The scandal is offering a window into how the still-evolving #MeToo movement is tearing through state legislatures across the country.Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan (D) fired the aide, Kevin Quinn, on Monday, after Democratic consultant Alaina Hampton detailed the months of harassment she faced while working for Madigan's political operation.ADVERTISEMENTIn text messages Hampton turned over to the Chicago Tribune, sent between September and December 2016, Quinn repeatedly asked Hampton to drinks, even after she asked him to stop. Quinn complimented Hampton's appearance, asked whether she had a boyfriend and as...

On Iowa Politics discusses the Iowa Legislature's Republican agenda as funnel week ends, Sen. Chuck Grassley has dropped in a new Iowa Poll behind Sen. Joni Ernst in popularity, and some well known Democrats are making their way to Iowa.On Iowa Politics is a weekly news and analysis podcast which re-creates the conversations that happen when Iowa's political reporters get together after deadlines have been met. This week's show features Erin Murphy, Ed Tibbetts, Todd Dorman, and James Q. Lynch. This week's show was produced by Max Freund and the music heard in the podcast is courtesy of TGL. Chat with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @OnIowaPolitics, and subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. Know an Iowa musician who should be on our show? Send their band sound files.Let's block ads! (Wh...

The government on Friday asked a judge to strike AT&T's defense that the Justice Department is unfairly targeting the telecommunications company because of politics, thus selectively enforcing antitrust law in their lawsuit to stop its merger with Time Warner, CNN's parent company. By striking that line of defense, AT&T would not be able to argue that President Donald Trump's views regarding CNN and the merger (which as a candidate he pledged to stop) affected the DOJ's decision block the deal last year with a lawsuit. Justice Department lawyer Craig Conrath said in a status conference hearing on Friday that such a defense is "not true" and would create a side show during the trial. Conrath said they have an affidavit from Makan Delrahim, the head of the Justice Department's A...

Today in 5 LinesDeputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election. During a press conference, Rosenstein emphasized that “there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant” in the scheme, and that “there is no allegation in the indictment that the charge conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.” President Trump responded on Twitter, saying that “the results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong - no collusion!” Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of FBI and Justice Department protocol after FBI Director Chris...

AdvertisementWASHINGTON — He brushed it off as a hoax. He mused that it might be China, or a guy from New Jersey, or “somebody sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds.” He said President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had assured him it wasn’t true. And, he added, “I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it.”President Trump has never stopped belittling the charge that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. But on Friday, with the indictment of 13 Russians for orchestrating a vast, well-funded operation to interfere in the election, those denials collided with a mountain of evidence arrayed by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.For Mr. Trump, who has tried to discredit Mr. Mueller’s investigation as a politically ...

This was (yet again) supposed to be infrastructure week in Washington, but the president’s release of a vague proposal with no legislative buy-in from either party didn’t really have much of an impact on either the news cycle or the real world. Instead, a horrific mass shooting in a Florida school and a long-scheduled immigration policy showdown in the United States Senate became the major stories by week’s end. At the same time, it’s not a week in American politics these days without a fair amount of Trump Show antics. The ongoing fallout from former White House staff secretary Rob Porter’s domestic abuse scandal threatened to take down a larger circle of White House officials, and new evidence of financial improprieties from Trumpworld figures — inc...

Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham thinks LeBron James and Kevin Durant should stick to sports.Responding Thursday to a video in which James said President Trump “don’t give a f — about the people” and Durant said the country is not run “by a great coach,” Ingraham told the NBA stars to stay in their lanes. [Fox News’s Laura Ingraham to LeBron James and Kevin Durant: ‘Shut up and dribble’] “Must they run their mouths like that?” she asked. “Unfortunately, a lot of kids — and some adults — take these ignorant comments seriously. Look, there might be a cautionary lesson in LeBron for kids: This is what happens when you attempt to leave high school a year early to join the NBA. And it’s always u...